Iran adds nuclear capacity

Installation of centrifuges draws U.S., French criticism

April 9, 2008|By Ramin Mostaghim and Borzou Daragahi The Los Angeles Times

TEHRAN — Ignoring international condemnation, Iran announced Tuesday that it has begun to triple its capacity to produce enriched uranium and add newly developed high-speed centrifuges, which can be used either to produce atomic material for electricity or to fuel a nuclear bomb.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said his country had begun installing 6,000 new uranium-enrichment centrifuges at its nuclear facility near the central Iranian town of Natanz, where 3,000 such devices are already operating. He also announced the introduction of so-called IR-2 centrifuges, machines experts say can enrich uranium up to three times as fast as the devices now in place.

Ahmadinejad struck a defiant, nationalistic tone, trumpeting the country's nuclear accomplishments on the its third annual National Day of Nuclear Technology, which marks the anniversary of the day Iran first produced enriched uranium.

"Iran's victory will be a prelude to change in all relations all over the world," he told dignitaries and officials gathered for a ceremony Tuesday night. "The Iranian nation knows that standing on the summit of success will evoke the hatred of our enemies. But so far the Iranian nation has paid the least price for its success, and in the future it will be the same, minimum price for nuclear success."

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has ruled that nuclear weapons clash with Islam, and the country's leaders insist their nuclear program is meant only for civilian energy purposes.

The United States and its allies accuse Iran of using a civilian atomic energy program to mask a drive to build weapons of mass destruction. The announced expansion quickly elicited criticism from French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who termed it "dangerous" and called for stepped up punishment of Iran.

Gregory Schulte, U.S. ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, said, "Today's announcement shows clear intent to even further violate Security Council requirements."

Iranian officials frequently have made claims about their nuclear program that failed to match actual accomplishments. Arms control experts said it would take at least four months before Iran's new centrifuges could be operational. Iran's current centrifuges are based on a "P1" design dating back to the dawn of the nuclear age and have been prone to malfunctions.

"The question is whether the P1 they're building is better than the P1 they've got already," said David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, an arms-control think tank in Washington. "It hasn't worked well. It's pitiful how poorly it's performed."

To circumvent P1's drawbacks, Iran also recently created a next-generation centrifuge called the IR-2, a design based on 1970s-era enrichment technologies it allegedly bought from the network of Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan. Arms control experts call Iran's development of the new centrifuge a technological breakthrough.

Still, nonproliferation experts say the IR-2 is itself based on an antiquated 1970s design which has been surpassed many times in the West. On-site international inspectors monitor Iran's enrichment facility at Natanz continuously. In late May, IAEA inspectors will present their latest findings to the agency's board of governors and U.N. officials.